The contest for 10 free licenses of jv16 PowerTools brings up a good debate.

I have read many threads on other forums and consistent comments from MVP's and other senior members is to avoid Registry Optimizers because they have a greater potential for harm than good.

The consistent reason people seam to give for thinking they need one is to remove left over garbage from installing and uninstalling programs.

To combat this, I use Revo Uninstaller.

What is your opinion of Registry Optimizers in general?

Also, how do I make this a poll?

I can not remember where but there was a study done a few years ago on all the registry optimisers that came to the conclusion that they really did not do a great of good, and that as you state in the wrong hands they can do a lot of harm. Personally I don't use one, because of this. I do however manually check my registry to see what is there, and if I've not go the programme to match then I just delete the item. I also think that if there had been a real need for a registry optimiser then Microsoft would have done one by now.

I can not remember where but there was a study done a few years ago on all the registry optimisers that came to the conclusion that they really did not do a great of good, and that as you state in the wrong hands they can do a lot of harm. Personally I don't use one, because of this. I do however manually check my registry to see what is there, and if I've not go the programme to match then I just delete the item. I also think that if there had been a real need for a registry optimiser then Microsoft would have done one by now.
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Seti

Microsoft have released a registry cleaner and it has been out for a while now.

I can not remember where but there was a study done a few years ago on all the registry optimisers that came to the conclusion that they really did not do a great of good, and that as you state in the wrong hands they can do a lot of harm. Personally I don't use one, because of this. I do however manually check my registry to see what is there, and if I've not go the programme to match then I just delete the item. I also think that if there had been a real need for a registry optimiser then Microsoft would have done one by now.
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Seti

Microsoft have released a registry cleaner and it has been out for a while now.

I understand that registry cleaning is an old myth from previous Windows (XP and older) where clening the registry could buy you a little performance gain. However, in Vista, the access method to the registry was changed and "cleaning" the registry does not buy any performance gain. I personally stay away from it. But if you use it (e.g. with CCleaner), make a backup since they give you this option. The few bytes of disk space you will be saving are not worth talking about anyhow.

I can not remember where but there was a study done a few years ago on all the registry optimisers that came to the conclusion that they really did not do a great of good, and that as you state in the wrong hands they can do a lot of harm. Personally I don't use one, because of this. I do however manually check my registry to see what is there, and if I've not go the programme to match then I just delete the item. I also think that if there had been a real need for a registry optimiser then Microsoft would have done one by now.

My point of view is that unless there is a specific problem in the registry there is no need to use a reg cleaner. If there is a specific problem in the registry, it is unlikely to be solved by using a reg cleaner. Any time I am helping with malware removal and have to include a script for a registry entry removal, I double- and triple-check the script -- especially if it is for a key rather than a value.

In the event anyone still feels that a registry cleaner is needed, please first make a full backup -- not merely a registry export, but a backup with ERUNT that can be restored if something goes wrong.